Clarendon Works: the perfect home for Prince Harry and Cressida?

Stuart Penney takes a Google Glass tour of a sensational West London
home that is fit for royalty

It is the royal romance on everyone’s lips. Young Prince Harry is in need of a beautiful bride. The 25- year-old Cressida Bonas fits the bill perfectly. With a polished background and good looks to match, Cressida is rumoured to be in line for a royal wedding. The couple have been spotted at Twickenham and The Book of Mormon musical. Recently Cressy joined Harry for her first public engagement.

While the twentysomethings ponder their future, we can go one step further and speculate about where they might choose to live.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have made their home at a four-storey residence in Kensington Palace. They have given it a multi-million pound facelift, as well as the obligatory armed guards, and respectability reigns. But a palace feels too stuffy for Harry, who has always liked to walk on the wild side. So where would be more appropriate?

In an effort to help the prospective royal couple, we scoured the capital for options. But what kind of property would suit them? There are some obvious candidates. How about one of those gorgeous terraced townhouses in Regent’s Park, designed by John Nash. The man, who gave us Marble Arch and Buckingham Palace, is surely the ideal architect for a royal pied-a-terre?

Or maybe something in timeless SW3? Chelsea, of course, has royal connections stretching back centuries.

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Both would be solid, if unimaginative, options. But I think that for the young prince and his beau something a little left-field is more appropriate. In W11, a stone’s throw from Holland Park tube, is the perfect pad for two young royals-about-town: Clarendon Works.

The former brick-making factory has been converted into a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house that positively exudes history. The Moreno:Masey studio was contracted for around £700,000 to forge a sensational family property which blends old with new.

Louise Hewlett, who is handling the sale at Aylesford International agrees. “Clarendon Works is one of those rare gems of a property which we rarely see come to the market, and will give the lucky purchasers a unique London home. The studio design and accommodation provides both the flexibility for a family home, as well as a great space for entertaining.”

Modernisation does not come without sacrifices, however. Today the brick kiln might be long gone, but there is plenty to get fired up about. The sitting room has exposed walls, Douglas fir floorboards and a stunning contemporary fireplace.

(VistaBee)

Its original windows were replaced years ago. Brand-new steel-framed windows by the Victorian company Crittall Windows, as used everywhere from the Tower of London to the Titanic, celebrate the building’s industrial past.

The generous, Manhattan-style sitting room is flooded with light as well as an almost sculptural open-timber staircase: a quick step to industrial chic. Elsewhere, simple white plaster walls are a blank canvas for modern prints and photographs. This is a flexible space to showcase the owner’s lifestyle. If Cressida or Harry fancied their hand at decoration, this would be a great place to start.

Perhaps his role would be host-in-chief, in which case he would be impressed by the wine cellar. More than 1200 bottles of wine are displayed around its walls. When I visited, there was not a pool table in sight. Perhaps the royal family would insist on that point for some extra R & R.

The master bedroom is a sanctuary at the top of the house, high up under the facade’s pediment. Skylights mean you can sleep beneath the stars and be woken by the morning sunlight. Simple, serene decoration off-sets the sharp angles and interesting shapes. There is access to the roof terrace, where the new owners could look across the city from the property’s telescope. It would make a change from being spied on by paparazzi, at any rate.

The regal effect is completed by the master bathroom, which includes an egg-shaped tub, a huge shower room and elegant contemporary basins. A room like this is a pipe-dream for most of us, but for the royals it could simply be the icing on the cake.

And a cake with an asking price of £12m is hardly to be sniffed at. But with prime London properties such as this continuing to out-perform the market, the couple could be confident of a sound investment. Goodness knows what the old brickies would have made of it all, but for a first step into 21st-century bricks and mortar, it would be difficult even for a royal to find a cooler home.

*Clarendon Works is for sale through Aylesford International for £12m (020 7351 2383; 020 7351 2383; aylesford.com). The Google Glass series is filmed with the help of Vistabee (vistabee.com).